The Extreme Right in Spain
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The Extreme Right in Spain Surviving in the Shadow of Franco (1975-2014) Hedda Samdahl Weltz Master in History IAKH Faculty of Humanities UNIVERSITY of OSLO Høst 2014 I II The extreme right in Spain Surviving in the Shadow of Franco (1975-2014) A master thesis By Hedda Samdahl Weltz 2014 IAKH UiO III Copyright ©Hedda Samdahl Weltz 2014 The Extreme Right in Spain – Surviving in the Shadow of Franco (1975-2014) Hedda Samdahl Weltz http://www.duo.uio.no Trykk: Reprosentralen, Universitetet i Oslo IV Abstract In this master thesis my aim is to investigate the extreme right in Spain after Franco, from 1975 to 2014. I will compare the three largest extreme right movements, FE de las JONS, CEDADE and Fuerza Nueva with the newly created coalition LEM. After almost 40 years of a national catholic dictatorship did Spain transform into a democracy in a couple of years. The importance of Franco’s person and the lack of cooperation between the remaining Francoist secured the easy democratic transition. The Falangist tradition of José Antonio Primo de Rivera and Franco’s regime have been of massive importance to the post-Franco extreme right in Spain. They claim to represent something new, but they are unable to escape the national catholic traditions of their predecessor. V VI Preface This master thesis is a party of the master program at the University of Oslo, 2014. The objective with this thesis is to clarify the role of the extreme right in post-Franco Spain. There have been recent studies on the new wave of extreme right in Europe. I wanted to research the Spanish situation, mainly because of the quick democratisation after Franco’s death. This is not a thesis in which I compare the situation in Spain with the situation in other European countries, although I will try to place it in a European context. Each extreme right movement is presented in its own chapter, before I compare them in one of the last chapters. I found this to be the least confusing way. I decided to research Spain because of my knowledge of Spain and my understanding of the language. The notion of extremism, fascism and totalitarianism has always been of great interest to me, probably because I do not understand its attraction. I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Øystein Sørensen, for constructive criticism and good advice. I also want to thank Senior Academic Librarian at the University of Oslo’s library, José María Izquierdo, for help navigating in the vast amount of literature. Thanks to the librarians at the archive in Madrid and the old man I met there who told me about the national sentiment surrounding the attempted coup in 1981. My family, friends and co- workers deserve thanks for putting up with me during the last couple of months. Finally I would like to thank the institute for allowing me to travel to Madrid. VII VIII Table of contents 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 2 1.1 Objectives ......................................................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Main sources ................................................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Main theories .................................................................................................................................. 5 1.4 Structure ........................................................................................................................................... 6 2 Fascism ....................................................................................................................................... 8 2.1 European Fascism ......................................................................................................................... 8 2.1.1 Fascism in Spain during the 1930s – National syndicalism .................................................. 8 2.2 Neo-Fascism .................................................................................................................................... 9 2.2.1 Neo-Fascism in Spain ............................................................................................................................. 9 3 Spain 1920-2014: From the dictatorship oF Miguel Primo de Rivera to the Euro crisis. ................................................................................................................................................ 12 3.1 Spain between the two world wars ....................................................................................... 12 3.1.1 The Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera ............................................................................................. 12 3.1.2 Right during the second Spanish republic – fascism in Spain ............................................ 13 3.1.3 From FE de las JONS to FET de las JONS ...................................................................................... 16 3.2 Francisco Franco .......................................................................................................................... 16 3.2.1 Francisco Franco and El Movimiento Nacional ........................................................................ 16 3.2.2 Spain during the second world war ............................................................................................... 17 3.2.3 Consolidation and “Fascistization” ................................................................................................. 17 3.2.4 After the war – Survival of the dictatorship ............................................................................... 19 3.3 After Franco ................................................................................................................................... 19 3.3.1 Juan Carlos “el breve” – and Carlos Arias Navarro .................................................................. 19 3.3.2 Adolfo Suárez ........................................................................................................................................... 20 3.3.3 PSOE, Felipe González and GAL ....................................................................................................... 22 3.3.4 Partido Popular and José María Aznar ......................................................................................... 24 3.4 Today ............................................................................................................................................... 24 4 El Búnker ................................................................................................................................. 26 4.1 The “members” ............................................................................................................................. 26 4.2 El Alcázar ........................................................................................................................................ 27 4.2.1 Confederación Nacional de Ex combatientes ............................................................................. 28 4.2.2 “Almendros” ............................................................................................................................................. 28 4.3 GatherinG points ..................................................................... Feil! Bokmerke er ikke definert. 4.3.1 Nostalgia .................................................................................................................................................... 29 4.3.2 El Búnker in the new regime ............................................................................................................ 31 4.4 23-F – The attempted coup ....................................................................................................... 32 4.4.1 Consequences .......................................................................................................................................... 33 4.5 Failure ............................................................................................................................................. 34 4.6 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 34 5 FE de las JONS ......................................................................................................................... 36 5.1 Parties developed From FE de las JONS ................................................................................ 36 5.1.1 Frente Español ........................................................................................................................................ 36 5.1.2 Circulos Doctrinales José Antonio (CDJA) ................................................................................... 37 5.1.3 FE de las JONS (Auténtica) ................................................................................................................. 37 IX 5.2 Failure ............................................................................................................................................. 38 5.2.1 Elections .................................................................................................................................................... 38 5.2.2 Denying the Francoist heritage .......................................................................................................